No. 7: Dan Fouts a San Diego mainstay

The 52 is U-T San Diego’s selection of our city’s 52 most influential sports figures

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 1980, file photo, San Diego Charges quarterback Dan Fouts (14) and running back Chuck Muncie (46) flash big smiles as they leave field following the Chargers 20-14 over the Buffalo Bills in an NFL football playoff game in San Diego. The New Orleans Saints announced Tuesday, May 14, 2013, that Muncie, a Pro Bowl running back with both the Saints and Chargers, has died. He was 60. (AP Photo/File)
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FILE - In this Jan. 5, 1980, file photo, San Diego Charges quarterback Dan Fouts (14) and running back Chuck Muncie (46) flash big smiles as they leave field following the Chargers 20-14 over the Buffalo Bills in an NFL football playoff game in San Diego. The New Orleans Saints announced Tuesday, May 14, 2013, that Muncie, a Pro Bowl running back with both the Saints and Chargers, has died. He was 60. (AP Photo/File)
/ AP

It was 1973 when the quarterback, a San Francisco native, was drafted out of Oregon in the third round. On Sundays, he was seen on television, growing into his craft, elevating his game, becoming a fixture to the audience.

Times change.

Fouts, in this regard, has not.

From a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee to now CBS color commentator, Fouts has been an NFL mainstay in San Diego homes since his arrival. Before throwing to the studio, he slung it to some Chargers legends in Kellen Winslow, John Jefferson, Charlie Joiner and Wes Chandler, his mark leaving an indelible impression on the game.

During a 15-year career spent entirely in San Diego, Fouts threw for 43,040 yards.

That remains a team record, one quarterback Philip Rivers, at his current pace, will need a new contract in order to catch in 2016. Fouts' 254 touchdown passes are also a team record, Rivers a season or two away from matching it at 221.

Maybe Fouts' records have withstood the test of time because the Chargers then, under Don Coryell's tutelage, were so far ahead it.

Fouts was in his late 20s when he blossomed under Coryell. Of his 22 career games with 350 or more passing yards. Of them, 15 came after celebrating his 30th birthday. Coryell arrived in 1978, months after Fouts turned 27.

The Chargers promptly led the NFL in passing yardage for five straight seasons and a sixth time in 1983.

Fouts personally paced the league in yardage from 1979 to 1982. An NFL quarterback has eclipsed 4,800 yards in a single season just 18 times in history. Sixteen of the instances occurred this millennium, including 10 in the past three years. Fouts, with 4,802 back in 1981, was the very first.

The Associated Press MVP Award went to a kicker that season — Mark Moseley of the Redskins — but Fouts didn't lack accolades during his career. To both the Pro Football Writers Association and Newspaper Enterprise Association, he was the MVP in 1981.

He was voted to six Pro Bowls.

As well as his place in Canton, he is in the Chargers Hall of Fame. His No. 14 jersey is retired, one of three numbers preserved by the organization. Lance Alworth, 19, and Junior Seau, 55, are the others. In the coming years, LaDainian Tomlinson and his No. 21 is expected to join them.

“A big part of my heart is still with San Diego,” a retired Fouts wrote in a 1995 Union-Tribune story leading up to the Chargers' Super Bowl appearance versus his hometown 49ers. “I'll always feel like it's my second city. You don't spend 15 years as emotionally wrapped up in a profession as football in a city like San Diego and not have it always be part of you.”

For the record, Fouts added he was rooting for the Chargers.

THE DAN FOUTS FILE

Born: June 10, 1951

San Diego impact: A six-time Pro Bowler who led arguably the most prolific offenses in franchise history. His No. 14 Chargers jersey is retired.

Notable number: Fouts was the first player in NFL history to eclipse 4,000 passing yards in three straight seasons, doing so from 1979 to 1981.